Since there are so many questions regarding the Terran campaign, probably because many people new to X start off as a Terran pilot, I figured I'd write a walkthrough for it as I was just about to play it again. Below are the step by step instructions to get through all seven missions (by my count anyways), including the common snags and how to hopefully avoid them.

If you have any questions regarding any part of this campaign, please don't hesitate to ask!

Starting the campaign

If your start is a Terran one, go directly to mission one. Otherwise, you will have to play through the Bridge mission to get the campaign going.

Q - Why should I play the Terran campaign?
A - Because it's there? The Terran campaign does actually reward you with some pretty decent goodies, as well as give you access to two systems you'd otherwise get no access to. (Earth's inner systems and Aldrin.)
Aldrin especially is valuable, since it sells the Spitfyre and Springblossom, probably the best M3 and most versatile M6 available in the game.
The Terrans also pay pretty well, and they have (imo) the most deadly M2 in the galaxy in the Osaka.

Q - Is the campaign hard?
A - Not especially, though you do get some massive combats in it. The campaign is more annoying because it's plenty bugged and features some dreadfully long "travel 38 sectors while following a ship that's going 62m/s...)

Q - What ship should I have to do this campaign?
A - A good M3 should work fine, but I used an M6. Make sure that your ship has the following upgrades : Jumpdrive, Cargobay Life Support System, SETA(!!!!), Freight Scanner and around 100 cargo space to carry some of your passengers! (Thanks Carlo!)

BRIDGE :

Difficulty : Cakewalk
Bugs : No.

Fly into Omicron Lyrae for the first time, and you will be automatically contacted and asked if you want to help escort some Terran dignitaries. If you wish to help, talk to the person in the Equipment Dock in Omicron Lyrae.

***Note, according to the manual, the plot will wait for you, but when I ignored this mission the first time, it cancelled itself after about 20 minutes or so, and I got a message saying "Sorry you couldn't help out, maybe next time." Then when I went back it did not seem to be there anymore. I am unsure whether it will refresh later on. Be prepared to at least do the Bridge mission when you enter Omicron Lyrae for the first time.*** Edit : Delray confirmed that the mission does keep respawning over and over, so maybe it was just something funky in my game that it didn't seem to.

- After talking to the contact in the equipment dock, fly to the Eclipse that's marked. Its pilot will greet you and after a few moments a Terran Scabbard shows up. Escort the Terran Scabbard to the Terran Orbital Defence Station in Heretic's End.

- Two pirates attack your group in Circle of Labour. It seems to be a random spawn, but I got two M5s each time. Your wingmen will take care of them.

- Several Xenon spawn in Heretic's End. This is based on your combat rank, but even at high levels it will spawn a few Ms at most. Shouldn't be any problem.
- Watch the Scabbard dock at the station, then comm the station and talk to Erin Lovis and tell her you'd love to work for the Terrans.

MISSION ONE :

Difficulty : Easy.
Bugs : No.

Join Samuel Plinter for a patrol in Uranus. If you start as a Terran, you'll already be here, otherwise you need to fly there. Go N from Heretic's End, N through Asteroid Belt, N through Jupiter, then W through Saturn. (or just follow your handy little orange guide). In Uranus, fly to Splinter's ship and Comm him. After he's done talking, follow him around for a bit.

- An emergency broadcast comes in saying that the Sol system is under attack by Xenon. Kill the Xenon that pop up in Uranus.
- Find the Xenon Jump beacon and scan it by flying close. (less than 100 meters) It should pop up a counter that goes to 100%, which should only take a few seconds. After that, destroy it.
- Once you're done mopping up, a message comes in stating that several Xenon message probes are moving towards the system's outer sectors. Plinter orders you to fly to the Oort Cloud and intercept it.

- Fly to Oort Cloud (just keep going west). Once in the Oort Cloud, wait for the probe to arrive. This can easily take several minutes even on SETA ten, so just sit and wait. A cutscene will play when it arrives.
- Follow the message probe to its destination. If you started as a Terran, your ship will be too slow to keep up with it. Don't worry too much about that. Just keep flying in its direction and you'll catch up with a jump beacon and Argon Nova eventually.

*** NOTE : It probably helps to have a Triplex Scanner here, so go and buy one if you don't.

Watch the Nova blow up the beacon before jumping out, then fly back to the Orbital Accelerator to Pluto. Plinter will join you again. Fly to Pluto.

- Patrol Pluto against Xenon intrusion. If you're having trouble with this mission, try to stick with Plinter and his men. The AI seems to be toned down for this mission, so you shouldn't have any problem. Once you're done, fly to Neptune.

- Patrol Neptune against Xenon. Same as above. Fly to Uranus.

- Patrol Uranus against Xenon. Yawn. Fly to Saturn.

- Dock with the Saturn Research Station to complete the mission.

MISSION TWO :

Difficulty : Easy.
Bugs : No.

You are ordered to dock at the Orbital Patrol Base in Asteroid Belt. General Mishsiajamama orders you to fly to the shipyard in Mars to get an M5. Once you've docked there, they tell you to go back. You make me fly up and down for a measly 30.000 credits? Those Terrans have got some nerve I tells ya! Anyways, sell the M5 (or keep it, whatever) and go back where you came from. This time you get some actual orders. Go talk to Mark Jackson in Heretic's End.

- Jackson talks a lot, then tells you to wait for a bit. Just hang tight, he'll start talking again soon enough. The Xenon are attacking Scale Plate Green. Your orders are to FOLLOW the non-Xenon ship, but NOT to attack it.

- Fly or jump to Scale Plate Green. Notice the same Argon Nova. A cutscene plays, and it will start to move north. Either follow it straightaway, or take out the Xenon L in this sector. They are completely inert (won't attack), and seem to have a morale that's set to zero, so you can easily cap a few and sell them for good money. Keep an eye on the Nova though. (if it does escape you, the mission will restart, but still). Follow the Nova to PTNI HQ.

*** NOTE : If you are flying a ship with turrets, make sure to turn them off when you jump through the gate. I jumped to within 3.5km of the Nova and my over-eager turret immediately opened fire, ending the mission (since the Nova jumps away.) The mission will automatically restart, but it was still annoying.

- In PTNI HQ, follow the Nova East into the Unknown Sector.

- In the Unknown Sector, watch the Nova dock with the Pirate Base. You are ordered to scan it. To do so, you must fly within 500 METERS of the Pirate Base. If you're close enough, a counter will start at the bottom of the screen. If it doesn't, you must not be close enough. Get a little closer.

***Note - it seems random whether or not this pirate base will attack you once you get close. I've played the mission 3 times, and only once was I attacked. If you ARE attacked, either kill or ignore the attackers. Once done, fly or jump back to Heretic's End and talk to Mark Jackson in the Orbital Patrol Base.

Last edited by Creston on Sat, 8. Nov 08, 09:11, edited 6 times in total.

Difficulty : Pretty tough, especially on lower fight rankings. At higher rankings, the mission spawns Xenon Ps, which are a sitting duck. At lower levels, all it spawns are hordes of Xenon Ls and Ms, with their shield destroying, never missing PBEs. Make sure NOT to outfly your wingmen in your eagerness to kill some Xenon.

- Fly to the Sabre in Heretic's End, and talk to the pilot. They tell you you have been given three M5s to use as a Wing. Your first job is to assign the three to a Wing. (hit each ship's command console and use the "Assign to Wing" option.) Though the pilot says the choice of whether to make a wing is up to you, the mission won't actually continue until you do. So do it.

- It's up to you whether to take the ships along or not. If you sell them, you'll get 250K or so for them. If you take them, they'll just wind up getting destroyed, but they might distract some Xenon for awhile. Up to you. Fly to Circle of Labour.

- Patrol Circle of Labour and destroy all Xenon incursions. There are two waves. Once you're done, fly to Omicron Lyrae.

- Patrol Omicron Lyrae. Same as above. Fly to Treasure Chest.

- In Treasure Chest, you'll see some new enemy ships, which I refer to as Decafs. Though there are more Xenon in this sector, all you have to do is destroy the decafs, which is really easy, since they don't seem to do much. After you're done wiping them out, talk to Mark Jackson in Heretic's End.

MISSION FOUR :

Difficulty : Easy.
Bugs : Sorta.

Fly to Samuel Plinter and talk to him. You have to escort a Scabbard to Venus. Plinter tells you you'll be safe all the way. That should make you worry. Fly to Asteroid Belt, then to Mars.

- in Mars, reports will come in of a Xenon ship that's broken through the lines (surprise!)
Now you have to decide what to do. Your mission is to protect the Scabbard, but it can make it to Venus on its own. You could also turn around and help out with the invading Xenon. My first time through, I just ran with the Scabbard, and that seemed to leave the Xenon in place, but remove the fleet that was defending Mars. So I'd recommend just killing the Xenon.

- There will be another jump beacon that's allowing Xenon reinforcements to jump in. Destroy it quickly. (a missile takes care of it nicely.) Fight some fighters, but be careful not to engage the J, unless you're good at taking down capitals. A Terran Osaka is on its way to deal with the J. Sit back and watch it brutally murder the Xenon, then remember I told you the Osaka is the most brutal M2. Point Singularity Projectors rule!

*** NOTE : You can actually ignore the jump beacon. However, the first time I played this mission, I came back to Mars after I had dropped the Scabbard off, and the Xenon J was still alive, there was no Terran ship anywhere in sight, and it was happily working on (slowly) killing Mars Shipyard's shields. So I'd just take care of it here when the Osaka is there to help you. YMMV.

- Odds are the Scabbard has already landed by the time you're done. Fly to Venus, and talk to Benthami in the Orbital Defense Station. Wait for your next orders.

MISSION FIVE :

Difficulty : Easy but pretty boring.
Bugs : Some.

*** Note : Before you start this mission, I would first play the Bridge to the Argon campaign called Operation Final Fury. This starts by talking to the Exterminator in Omicron Lyrae. If you choose not to do this, at least have a high Argon ranking. (fourth from above, I believe.)
If you don't have that either, you're going to have some serious problems later in this mission.

Also : do NOT be on "shoot on sight" terms with any race, as you WILL regret it later on. Trust me, I know... ***

Talk to Mark Jackson in Heretic's End. He tells you to go to the Free Argon Trading Station in Nathan's Voyage. Fly or jump there.

- As you close to the station, some rude woman tells you to follow her. Follow her and talk to her, and she'll jammer on for awhile about her captured partner. Then she tells you to follow her to an acquaintance who could help.
Sadly, this acquaintance is 4 sectors away and her ship goes a magnificent 64m/s. So you can either follow her, and sit there for 30 minutes watching yourself crawl across the sectors, or you can just go and jump to Grand Exchange and be done with it. Up to you. In any case, fly to Dream Farm Alpha and fly close. A cutscene will play, and more interminable yammering ensues. Once it's (finally) done, fly to Tears of Greed.

- Kill the smuggler in Tears of Greed. His escorts will attack you, and for that foolishness they should die also. Heywood tells you that you need to scan more ships to find the other smugglers, and that she will highlight them on your scanner.
Now, this confuses a lot of people, because she DOESN'T actually "highlight" them. Instead, the ships show up in a separate part of your sector screen. See the screenshow below for an example :

If you don't see them immediately, fly around a bit until they show up in your scanner. Scan each ship (you obviously need a freight scanner for this) and kill them once they turn hostile. Sometimes, however, the ships don't actually turn hostile. Kill them anyways. If the Teladi Condor has a problem with you because of it, comm the captain and tell him it was a mistake. He should go back to minding his own business.

- Fly back to the Dream Farm in Grand Exchange. The contact tells you you have been authorized to ship Teladianium to the Military Base holding your target.
Fortunately, there's a shipyard and 3 Teladianium foundries here in this sector. Dock with the shipyard and buy a Vulture. Now, for some reason, you can't equip a ship in this shipyard. Here's what I'd recommend :

If you have done mission one of Operation Final Fury, transfer over a SETA, Jumpdrive, Energy Cells, docking computer from your own ship. Then use the command console to tell your own ship to dock at the Military Outpost in Argon M148. Buy 200 teladianium, jump the Vulture to Argon M148, then dock with it at the Military Outpost. Once inside, swap ships and upgrades again, and voila.

If you haven't done the first Final Fury mission, everything in Argon M148 will hate you, since it's a restricted sector. Note the Argon ranking that's given in your briefing for this mission. If you are below that, you WILL be attacked upon entering the sector. Not good. If you are above it, you'll be left alone, but you can only dock at the Military Outpost. Otherwise you can dock everywhere.

If you're on hostile terms with any one race, as soon as you enter here with your crappy Vulture, a Military M6 of that race will come shoot you to bits. This happened to me

In any case, dock with the station, then wait for Heywood to dock too. This can take forever. Just wait. Alternatively, leave the station and hit SETA.

- She and her partner come flying out an airlock, and you've got to pick them up. This is annoying because they act like they don't WANT to be picked up. Once you've got them, fly or jump back to Heretic's End and talk to Mark Jackson.

Last edited by Creston on Fri, 7. Nov 08, 09:58, edited 3 times in total.

*** Note : Save in a separate savegame before you start this mission. Odds are good that you won't be able to finish this mission and will have to start over all the way from the start. Don't get caught without a previous savegame! ***

I AM NOT KIDDING! MAKE A SEPARATE SAVE!

The Terrans will contact you after awhile and order you to dock at the Orbital Patrol Base in Asteroid Belt. Dudes talk at you for awhile, then Robert Pearle will come onboard. Make SURE you have Cargobay lifesupport before you start this mission. If you don't have it, go buy it at a pirate base before you start the mission. Also, pick up 3 advanced satellites before you start, and 3 25MW shields. (trust me.)

- Once Robert Pearle is onboard, he becomes mission critical. Do not sell your ship! If you do that, he apparently starts floating around the universe and you'll have a %*#*)%#) time trying to find him. Also, it appears it'll then break the mission if you pick him up anyways.

- Fly to Family Zyarth, and drop one satellite. Doesn't matter where.
- Fly to Family Ryk, and drop one satellite. And yes, you just CAME through this sector. Apparently planning isn't Robert Pearle's strongest point...
- Fly to Zyarth's Dominion, and drop one satellite. Pearle should talk to you and tell you to wait a bit. If he doesn't, your mission broke and you should restart from the save I told you to make earlier.

- Fly back to Family Zyarth, and scan the highlighted ships. They will be highlighted just like in mission five, although this time they are Split ships, obviously. When you find the ship you're looking for, it'll go hostile and you need to SLOWLY shoot it down. Don't open up with Concussion Impulse Generators. You need to give the idiot pilot time to jump.
If you blow the ship up, don't worry, there's more.

- Claim the ship and board it.

- If you're lucky, the pilot will jump at 70-80% hull. If you're unlucky, he'll jump at 2% hull. Either way, REPAIR the ship to 100%, and beam over the 3 25MW shields. You will need all of it. Yes, I know it takes long. Trust me.

- You need to find the Split Elephant in the sector. If you're lucky, it's in scanner range, and will be highlighted on your map. If you're unlucky, you need to find it, and you need to do so in the freighter, as the mission wants you to be IN this freighter.

- When you find the elephant (he's usually in the SE corner of the sector), fly close (less than 400 meters) to plant a tracking bug. As soon as that's done, hightail it out of there. Now, five decafs will come after you. You can try to run but odds are you won't make it. What I always do here is just have my personal ship run interference for me. It doesn't need to kill them (in fact, it's probably better if it doesn't, see later) but just get them off your back so you can escape.

- Once you're out of the sector, fly to the Terran Odin in Ocean of Fantasy. When you get close to it, the captain will talk for awhile, then give you a cutlass.

*** NOTE : Transfer all your stuff from your personal ship to your cutlass, all upgrades, etc. The mission likes you better if you fly the cutlass here. ***

- Fly to the unknown sector. As soon as you enter the sector, there should be a cutscene, and Split and Terran forces should be fighting. If your sector has nothing but asteroids in it, your mission broke. Restart from the save I told you to make.

*** NOTE : In my experience with this mission, this point is dependant on whether the decafs lived or not. If they did, it tends to go right. If they died, I usually get an empty sector. YMMV. ***

- Fight with the Split for a bit, if you want to. It's not really necessary, since the Terrans outnumber them 10 to 1, and the Split just keep respawning anyways, as long as the TL has not been captured.

- Once the TL is captured, a pilot escapes from it, then ejects. Pick up the ejectee. Make sure you have cargo life support. I went through five respawns of this guy you need to scoop up before I realized I shoved them into a cargo hold and made them breathe cold hard vacuum...

- Transport your prisoner to The Moon. Dock at the Military Base. And then pray really really really @#Y@($&#% hard. Because odds are, you will just sit there and nothing happens. Like it has for so many other people. And then you get to restart all over again. Yay! I'm glad this mission was tested so well

In any case, in my experience, the game likes it better if you fly the ships it expects you to. However, as I was taking notes, it died on the final dock, I got angry, rushed through the mission just by using my Heavy Centaur everywhere, and ofcourse it worked fine then. I'm sure this all made sense to SOMEONE at Egosoft...

MISSION SEVEN :

Difficulty : Easy.
Bugs : Not really.

You get a message to dock at the shipyard in Mars. The Terrans want you to practice your capturing skills, and give you a Scabbard with Marines, and a Vidar to capture.
Open the command console on the Scabbard, order Piracy, Board Ship. Select the Vidar, then "Ready to Board".

Then go in there and carefully shoot down the shields of the Vidar. Make sure not to damage the hull, and to keep the shields < 10%. If not, they'll kill your marines. Just keep firing with a low yield weapon (IRE, or Ion Disruptor if you can mount one.)

In the grandest of aggravations, your marines have a chance to fail to capture an empty Vidar. So then you'd have to do it all over again. Sigh.

In any case, once you've captured it, you need to go talk to Jackson in The Moon.

*** Note : This is the ONLY Vidar in the game that you can get legitimately. Do NOT sell it. The Vidar is probably pound for pound the finest killing machine in the galaxy, as it mounts ten front guns for EMPCs, and suffers almost no energy drain. It can kill Ospreys in under ten seconds. ***

- Jackson gives you the coordinates to jump to Aldrin. Hit Shift J, then keep hitting A until Aldrin pops up. Jump there.

- In Aldrin, fly to the designated station. Watch the Springblossom take off, then sit there and wait as the Springblossom flies to the Tyr to negotiate. When that's underway, there is a small Xenon attack. Take care of it.

- After the discussion, you need to go capture the Xenon CPU ship. Simply follow the Tyr. Unless you have an M2 yourself, you're not going to do much damage to the CPU ship and its 12GJ shields, so wait for the Tyr to do all the heavy work.

- Once the Xenon's shields are down, order your marines to board, like you did with the Vidar.

*** Note : My marines have NEVER even gotten through the hull of this thing. However, after 3 failed attempts, the game apparently lets the Terran Marines take over the ship. ***

- You are ordered to land at Aldran Energy Production Facility LX Epsilon to pick up some suits. Take the suits to the Earth Torus.

- When you enter Earth, fly STRAIGHT to the Torus. Do not deviate in any way, or the rather Paranoid Terrans WILL blow you to smithereens.

Congratulations! You found Earth, got Aldrin access, and got a mildly damaged Vidar sitting in Mars' shipyard. Not bad for a half day's work, huh?

Hopefully this guide has been helpful to some people. Any comments or questions, please let me know.

Creston
[/u]

Last edited by Creston on Fri, 7. Nov 08, 09:49, edited 4 times in total.

hi nice brief walkthru :}just thought id add one other way to fail the mission line were you have to scan the 4 haulers for the one with the jumpdrive parts,force him out then claim it and bug the elephant,

after getting to the system with the odin in and going thru all the dialogue and getting the cuttlas,IF you are poor like me and sell the hauler when you travel to the destination to meet up with the fleet the sector will be empty,

and you will have to go back to the system and rescan haulers till you find the right one again then go thru the bugging of the elephant aswell all the way back to odin to hand it in.

was very annoying to me i must have done it about a dozen times, the mission WP allways sent me to the meet the fleet sector, but as i flew thru the sector you scan the haulers in id get a msg saying to do it again, i didnt realise that it was connected.

In most of the missions one can avoid a lot the fightin parts,
just let the locals do the most. Allthought that could take more time.

Mission 5 (deliver goods without doing the Argon mission):
Get the Jumpdire and Docking Computer + a ship that goes about +130 and has 3x25 shields.
Jump or drive to M184, go straight to the station and just under 5km to go, hit shift+d to dock immideatly.
Importan part is to have enough shields/speed to fly oclose to the station.

Undock and hit shift+j to jump out from M184
and get them astronauts after they fly to nearby uknown sector.

Mission 7
No need to board the Vidar, you'll get it automatically after awhile
and the plot moves on. That has worked for me several times.

Also, no need to go capture the Xenon CPU ship, terrans does it just fine.
Atleast that's been working for me, hangin' round sloopy in the backgrounds is worth a try.

Maybe missions work differently depending on different start-option,
or under different reputations and titles.
Im doing USC-Commander which is easy and could explain a lot.

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak...

*** Note - The Ships you get given have a 1% chance to survive the entire mission and seeling them nets your 250k. Additionally, the guns they carry can be 'borrowed' for your current ship (Sa-bre), so make for a rather handy upgrade! Unfortunatly New Terran starters dont have enough recognition to buy the guns themselves (yet).... so lie cheat steal!

Anyone have any idea how I can continue with mission 5, it's bugged to hell for me.

1. The pilot I was supposed to follow from the trade station doesn't exist, he was "no pilot", he still shouted at me a bit to follow despite being a tad non-corporeal, then I waited and it skipped to the next step.

2. Miss Heywood is in fact in a spacesuit, doing nothing, on the trading station in Nathan's Voyage, can do no such following of any kind and when I am tasked with docking with the military base, it promptly crashes to desktop.

Any ideas as to how to resolve this without the need for backtracking? As that possibility came and went long ago...

Thank you for putting this together.... , i appreciate being able to go to walk-thru once i get stuck, rather than searching for specific answers and risk getting spoilers where i'm not stuck, yet i always appreciate tips on anything..

I have aquestion about mission 7 ; i have the Vidar , fixed & armed , but do i have to be in the Scabbard to advance this mission... ( seems i missed getting coordinates while in Vidar ) ?

Again THNX..

*Edit--- BTW , mission 6 : you could try beaming over a JD and Ecells too while your transfering the shields ; when the bug plant is close to finished just jump out (or same sector jump , probaly prefered) .... mission advances and decafs survive

Last edited by clcabbage on Sat, 8. Nov 08, 18:26, edited 3 times in total.

jlehtone wrote:Several participants seem to have been upset by the existence of differing opinions.

The universe is neither so crazy that we can't understand it all nor so predictable that there's nothing left for us to discover. (from 'Jungles of Randomness'- Ivars Peterson)"The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind." -- Humphrey Bogart

Social-Pariah wrote:Anyone have any idea how I can continue with mission 5, it's bugged to hell for me.

1. The pilot I was supposed to follow from the trade station doesn't exist, he was "no pilot", he still shouted at me a bit to follow despite being a tad non-corporeal, then I waited and it skipped to the next step.

2. Miss Heywood is in fact in a spacesuit, doing nothing, on the trading station in Nathan's Voyage, can do no such following of any kind and when I am tasked with docking with the military base, it promptly crashes to desktop.

Any ideas as to how to resolve this without the need for backtracking? As that possibility came and went long ago...

Wow that sounds like a serious bug to me. I would post that in the tech support forum. I'm thinking there might be a way to get Patricia Heywood back in a ship and that might fix the mission through the cheat scripts, but Cycrow would be the better one to ask...

I have aquestion about mission 7 ; i have the Vidar , fixed & armed , but do i have to be in the Scabbard to advance this mission... ( seems i missed getting coordinates while in Vidar ) ?

No, the Scabbard becomes irrelevant at that point. However, you do need to fly to The Moon to talk with Commander Jackson in his Tyr. He gives you the coordinates.

As for all the tips and suggestions and extra ways the missions can tank, thanks though I think I'll leave them out to avoid it becoming too much of a clutter.